Abstract
This thesis addresses the transmission of video over third generation radio access networks. The first part of the thesis investigates the capabilities of Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Networks (UTRAN) in terms of the provision of multimedia communications. The error performance and traffic requirements of real-time video transmission over circuit switched and packet switched connections are examined. The effect of network parameter settings upon video performances is evaluated, and optimum radio bearer configurations for the transmission of video are derived. A method of estimating received video quality after transmission over error prone environments is developed. The quality estimation is based on a distortion model, which accurately models the overall distortion seen in decoder frame reconstruction. This includes quantisation distortion, concealment distortion, and error propagation. Based on the developed performance model, optimum MTU (Maximum Transfer Unit) size for efficient wireless video communications over a packet switched access network is derived. The second part of the thesis investigates quality enhancement techniques for multimedia traffic transmitted over wireless channels. Quality enhancement is achieved at three levels of the transmission process: link level, application level and system level. Link level quality enhancement techniques are designed to optimise the allocation of link level parameter values according to the media characteristics. A novel Unequal Error Protection scheme and a novel Unequal Power Allocation scheme are designed to exploit the inherent diversity in the subjective importance of different sections of compressed media. The algorithms are developed and analysed for transmission of video over 3G wireless systems. The effectiveness of these algorithms is demonstrated through the results of simulated transmission over a UMTS channel. Application level quality enhancement techniques are designed to explore the time-varying nature of the wireless channel. A number of link adaptation schemes are proposed for real time video communication and real-time video streaming over 3G wireless systems. These algorithms are designed to enhance the perceptual video quality, and the system utilisation. This is achieved by adapting the allocated radio network parameters and the source parameters, according to a feedback channel condition. Simulation results show a significant performance improvement compared to non-adaptive schemes. Finally, system level adaptation techniques are designed for efficient radio resource allocation in multi-user scenarios. Two adaptive resource allocation schemes are proposed and analysed for real-time video communications in a UMTS system. The proposed algorithms are shown to provide improved performances in terms of average received video quality and user satisfaction. Key words: Wireless Communication, Multimedia communication. Video Transmission.